Stacks of stuff...
Jun. 6th, 2014 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearShift by Hugh Howie:
This is the second in the Silo trilogy and mostly takes place prior to the events of the first book, Wool. It interweaves the story of how the silos came about in the first place with the story of one man living through several "shifts" in Silo One after they go online. I imagine the author's intention was to make the world of the silos more credible by linking it to a world not unlike our own and showing the progression from one to the other. It actually had the opposite effect for me - by showing characters that I could relate to from the point of view of their world and lifestyle, it emphasised to me how ridiculous the set-up in the silos is, and made me think the whole thing was very silly. I also wasn't very keen on any of the characters, and was distracted by wanting to know what had happened to the ones I knew and liked from the first book.
However, towards the end, various events took place that gave a great deal of insight and illumination to the events of the first book, and made listening to book two very much more worthwhile in terms of appreciating the story arc overall.
Dust by Hugh Howie:
I was so intrigued by the revelations of book two, that I went straight into listening to book three at the end of it, going back to the characters from book one, and interweaving them with several from book two. The collision of the two very different worlds of Silo One and Silo Eighteen was really interesting, and the gradual build-up to the climax was very exciting.
The actual conclusion to the trilogy was good, but a little bit of a let-down in some ways. The building events of the last few chapters took a sudden turn in a completely different direction, which left the ending feeling a bit of a cop-out, and left several interesting questions unanswered (Silo Forty, anyone?). But still, it was satisfying in other ways, and overall I would recommend the trilogy.
Relative Values:
Patricia Hodge, Neil Morrisey, Caroline Quentin - a very good cast in what turned out to be a solidly entertaining play. Dave pointed out that a lot of theatre these days is about spectacle and extravagance, but this won through by good writing, good acting, and an amusing story that played out quite subtly over the course of the play.
Diary of a Nobody:
We went to see this last night, and the always excellent White Bear Theatre. While a couple of the presentation choices weren't exactly to my taste (sexual assault should never be played for laughs...), this was generally very entertaining. The cast all played several parts (except the guy who exclusively played Pooter), all the costumes, sets and props were made to look as if they were made out of paper, and the way it was put together was really clever and very funny. Having read and enjoyed the book some time ago, I would describe this adaptation as "sufficiently silly".
Small Move, Big Change by Caroline Arnold:
Another self-help book, which covers some of the same ground as What Are You Hungry For, which I read last month, but does so in a much more straight-forward and less wishy-washy way, as well as broadening the ideas out to cover all aspects of life, not just food. It's all about small, maintainable, instantly beneficial micro-resolutions that can build to change the habits of a lifetime, and it all makes a great deal of sense in an easily digestible and approachable way. Highly recommended.
This is the second in the Silo trilogy and mostly takes place prior to the events of the first book, Wool. It interweaves the story of how the silos came about in the first place with the story of one man living through several "shifts" in Silo One after they go online. I imagine the author's intention was to make the world of the silos more credible by linking it to a world not unlike our own and showing the progression from one to the other. It actually had the opposite effect for me - by showing characters that I could relate to from the point of view of their world and lifestyle, it emphasised to me how ridiculous the set-up in the silos is, and made me think the whole thing was very silly. I also wasn't very keen on any of the characters, and was distracted by wanting to know what had happened to the ones I knew and liked from the first book.
However, towards the end, various events took place that gave a great deal of insight and illumination to the events of the first book, and made listening to book two very much more worthwhile in terms of appreciating the story arc overall.
Dust by Hugh Howie:
I was so intrigued by the revelations of book two, that I went straight into listening to book three at the end of it, going back to the characters from book one, and interweaving them with several from book two. The collision of the two very different worlds of Silo One and Silo Eighteen was really interesting, and the gradual build-up to the climax was very exciting.
The actual conclusion to the trilogy was good, but a little bit of a let-down in some ways. The building events of the last few chapters took a sudden turn in a completely different direction, which left the ending feeling a bit of a cop-out, and left several interesting questions unanswered (Silo Forty, anyone?). But still, it was satisfying in other ways, and overall I would recommend the trilogy.
Relative Values:
Patricia Hodge, Neil Morrisey, Caroline Quentin - a very good cast in what turned out to be a solidly entertaining play. Dave pointed out that a lot of theatre these days is about spectacle and extravagance, but this won through by good writing, good acting, and an amusing story that played out quite subtly over the course of the play.
Diary of a Nobody:
We went to see this last night, and the always excellent White Bear Theatre. While a couple of the presentation choices weren't exactly to my taste (sexual assault should never be played for laughs...), this was generally very entertaining. The cast all played several parts (except the guy who exclusively played Pooter), all the costumes, sets and props were made to look as if they were made out of paper, and the way it was put together was really clever and very funny. Having read and enjoyed the book some time ago, I would describe this adaptation as "sufficiently silly".
Small Move, Big Change by Caroline Arnold:
Another self-help book, which covers some of the same ground as What Are You Hungry For, which I read last month, but does so in a much more straight-forward and less wishy-washy way, as well as broadening the ideas out to cover all aspects of life, not just food. It's all about small, maintainable, instantly beneficial micro-resolutions that can build to change the habits of a lifetime, and it all makes a great deal of sense in an easily digestible and approachable way. Highly recommended.
